AU forces grad students to get health insurance

[Streyeder 0]

This is from a very good friend me mine who is a grad student at AU. He is a diehard AU guy (he'll prolly get his PhD there) and now he's quite upset.

Auburn University: An institution dedicated to higher learning. Hah. An

institution dedicated to extracting every last cent out of its graduate

students. Auburn has just enacted a mandatory health insurance on all

graduate students receiving a stipend, such as Graduate Teaching

Assistants and Graduate Research Assistants.

So what makes this policy bad? Every doctor's visit has to go through

the Auburn University Medical Clinic. Every visit. If you want to go

somewhere else, you have to visit the AUMC and get referred out to

another doctor, all while still paying the $25 co-pay to the

university.

What about students that already have medical insurance? Oh no problem.

You just have to prove *EVERY SEMESTER* that your insurance is "equal to

or better than" Auburn's. The form to do this has been specifically

crafted to make sure that very few, if any, policies actually make the

"equal to or better than" catch. There are 39 conditions that every

policy has to beat. The "waiver" only considers those listings on the

page, and makes no care if your policy, for example includes dental.

"Oh, your policy includes dental. But it has a hospital co-pay of $100?

Sorry. Our plan is better. You still have to pay."

For example:

Is the Hospital Emergency Room Co-pay: $75 per visit or less?

Is 100% of coverage paid, after co-pay, if use an Approved Provider

such as AU Medical Clinic operate by the East Alabama Medical Center

Health Foundation?

Is there outpatient treatment for alcohol or substance abuse for 30

visits or more per year up to a maximum of $100 per visit per policy

year?

Are there benefits for covered students and scholars for the diagnosis

and treatment of intracollegiate/club sport injuries?

This is simply another way to extract nearly a month's salary from

graduate students every semester. Many of my graduate student friends,

myself included, depend on all of our monthly stipends to pay our bills.

This must be stopped. Optional insurance is one thing. But mandatory

insurance is simply over stepping your bounds.

Main Information Page:

http://www.grad.auburn.edu/Graduate_Studen...e-Graduate.html

Waiver page:

http://www.grad.auburn.edu/Graduate_Studen...nce/waiver.html

---Auburn graduate student

[bigsixfive 328]

He should try to understand what's going on rather than get his panties bunched up. I agree, the short notice was a little too much, but Auburn is providing MUCH better plans with MUCH better rates now that they're letting us get involved in a group policy. Also, the plan is for the school to completely cover insurance in the near future. Will your buddy whine about that? The fact is, most schools offer this to their grad students. Auburn has been behind the curve on this for a while.

[CCTAU 3,355]

He should try to understand what's going on rather than get his panties bunched up. I agree, the short notice was a little too much, but Auburn is providing MUCH better plans with MUCH better rates now that they're letting us get involved in a group policy. Also, the plan is for the school to completely cover insurance in the near future. Will your buddy whine about that? The fact is, most schools offer this to their grad students. Auburn has been behind the curve on this for a while.

But does that mean it should be forced? I agree it probably is a good idea, but we reject good ideas every day for a preferred "not so good" idea. That's life. But I still do not see how an employer can force an employee to take their plan, unless the employer gives it free of charge....

[quietfan 233]

But I still do not see how an employer can force an employee to take their plan, unless the employer gives it free of charge....

Philosophically, I agree with you on the idea of "forced" enrollment. However, I've heard people say that sometimes insurers will require such a clause in the contract in order to guarantee they get enough members in the "group" coverage to match their actuarial models and assure themselves a profit. I don't KNOW that this is so, but I've had friends suggest this when complaining about their own employee benefits.

[bigsixfive 328]

But does that mean it should be forced? I agree it probably is a good idea, but we reject good ideas every day for a preferred "not so good" idea. That's life. But I still do not see how an employer can force an employee to take their plan, unless the employer gives it free of charge....

The number of students getting forced into a $95/month is pretty small when you look at it. If a student is under 25, which most MS students are, they are usually still on their parents insurance roster. Due to people get married pretty young down here, grad students are often under the spouse's insurance umbrella. Even if they're not, the site says only students that take 10 or more hours in a fall semester should enroll. Grad students hardly take more than 6 hours a semester, the rest of the time is spent doing research.

Edit: The 10 hours is how much they're paid for, not how many hours of class they sign up for. That changes the stats a little. If they're enrolled at 1/4 time employment, they'll be required to buy into this. HOWEVER, Auburn is matching HALF of the premuim right now, so that means single students will pay $43/month for health insurance. That's pretty dang good. Even with a wife and kids, the rates are low.

[bigsixfive 328]

Philosophically, I agree with you on the idea of "forced" enrollment. However, I've heard people say that sometimes insurers will require such a clause in the contract in order to guarantee they get enough members in the "group" coverage to match their actuarial models and assure themselves a profit. I don't KNOW that this is so, but I've had friends suggest this when complaining about their own employee benefits.

That's essentially what is going on. Auburn is trying to drive the rates down so they can take over the payments at a later date.